Seeing how things are going in North Korea we might have a US test soon. Trump says the US nukes are stronger than ever, does he know Bechtel has been in charge for 10yr?
Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...
Comments
August 9, 2017 at 1:48 PM
Bechtel baby! They are calling all the shots...all of the shots.
Bechtel baby is BECHTEL BABY! It is $$$, attituuude, instinct, and Winning. You get it or you get out, go big or go home. It is world wide and dropping the mic, doing victory laps and them some... It is Bechtel Baby you know it or you don't. It is going for the midterm get in for 5-10 years, get the spoils and move on to the next and the next after that, but place some operatives for the slow long term FUNNEL. It is Bechtel Baby, play it, do it, win it, live it, cash it in and f* it. It is Vibrant, UNREAL, contagious, ALIVE,... it is the VUCA many times over and under. It moves mountains, build tunnels, and is essential, it follows the money, grabs it by the, well you know, and the money lets Bechtel grab it by the. It is Bechtel baby!!! there is no ??? to it nor can the be because it is essential. Bechtel baby, you get it you or you don't and some have gotten it very well and played it well and made the money.
If you gotta ask than you ain't gonna get an answer because ya all ain't in the KNOW. Why you ask?, because the world is a very different place now.
Claim Bechtel is in charge and you are lying.
August 9, 2017 at 7:22 PM
Then why have LLNL and LANL been in such a steep decline since 2006? US ran LLNL and LANl very well for 60 years then the contract change and it has been total decay since. You tell me what is wrong? The thread that that UC was ok from 1944-2006 is bs, and you know this as this was the time during the cold war when people understood that the labs mattered. After the cold war you let Bechtel run the place...!? after the big dig, after Hanford, after the problems in South America. The reality is after the cold war people forgot about the labs and let them decay. In the end we may pay the price for this but who really cares about this? All empires end the and it would be foolish to think that United State is an exception.
So you are right Bechtel is not in charge...no one is in charge since no one cares.
Bechtel is worst.
-- Snowflake
In the real world, where real people live, that bestows LANS ownership and control to UC.
eom
In the real world, where real people live, that bestows LANS ownership and control to UC.
eom
Than why have the labs changed so much? Did UC change or did they just let Bechtel take control?
August 10, 2017 at 10:13 AM
Not buying it, the labs seemed to run well until the WHL hysteria, stolen Mustangs...ect.
These were simply trumped up hysteria to make the labs for profit. In any case how is the UC system different now from the 60s or 40s, if anything it is more qualified. It is also pretty clear that Bechtel is running the show.
August 10, 2017 at 12:59 PM
WHL wasn't "trumped up." The DOE/NNSA thoroughly screwed up what was a masterfully put together case by the FBI and their and the Lab's own cyber forensic teams. It is unfortunate that WHL thus gets lumped in with the other hysteria (correct word in all the other cases), based solely on the judge's apology to WHL for the government's screwups. WHL probably rightly deserved the apology, but it doesn't make him innocent, just "not proven guilty" on the worst of the charges. In criminal law, "not guilty" does not mean "innocent" as the public imagines.
August 10, 2017 at 12:59 PM
Not buying it.
Fake news.
Delusional worldview, completely out of line with reality.
August 10, 2017 at 1:17 PM
Many other people with real knowledge of the case have said it was trumped up. The FBI did have a masterfully put together case they never had a case in the first place and it was the FBI the screwed it up. In criminal law not guilty also means "not guilty" and one is presumed innocent until proven guilty. I think you read too many spy versus spy or Maxwell Smart episodes so you are in "the know" and understand these things.
Wait a minute.....
McMillan, career UC LLNL and LANL
Kacich, Bechtel for last 10 years, previous 30 years non-Bechtel
Lyons, career UC LANL
Bishop, career UC LANL
Webster, career UC LANL
Wallace, UC LANL for last 15 years, previous 20 years in university
Leasure, career UC LANL
Simmons, Bechtel
Bechtel's 2 of Simmons and Kacich must be very persuasive over the UC 6 (McMillan, Lyons, Bishop, Webster, Wallace, and Leasure) if they are ruling the lab.
If the same is done as at Sandia, each and every manager above Group Leader (without exception) will be forced to resign. At Sandia a few, but only a very few, Division Leaders were held over between contracts as transition bridges.
Some of these folks are second generation LANL lifers, whose parents worked there. Talk about an in-bred culture!
August 11, 2017 at 4:56 AM
When you go to the DPAD, AD and DAD levels, it is very little Bechtel and almost all LANL lifers.
August 11, 2017 at 9:47 AM
I think a point people are missing is that the salaries for these positions
went way up and if you include the bonus money they may getting four times or more than before the contract change. Bechtel probably said look we will make sure you make tons of money but you have to let us be in control. This is a typical tactic of how a multi-national corporation works, you pay off the key native leaders to do your bidding. This is how you do in Bolivia and how you do in LANL.
Bechtel is not in charge, never was. Bechtel is NOT in control, never was.
Bechtel had no way to set the salaries of LANL's predominately UC management, those salaries were set by negotiation between the (mostly) UC management and DOE.
You keep perseverating on Bechtel but the rest of us know that LANL's decline is primarily owing to poor quality UC managers, actually mostly dunces, and NNSA's horrendous mismanagement of the entire weapons complex.
Bechtel had no way to set the salaries of LANL's predominately UC management, those salaries were set by negotiation between the (mostly) UC management and DOE.
You keep perseverating on Bechtel but the rest of us know that LANL's decline is primarily owing to poor quality UC managers, actually mostly dunces, and NNSA's horrendous mismanagement of the entire weapons complex.
August 11, 2017 at 11:22 AM
This is almost 100% correct in that all but a couple of the top LANL managers have their compensation set by UC, with no input from Bechtel. The only place DOE enters into this is when the total compensation is over a certain level then the government will only reimburse LANS up to that limit from direct costs and the value above it must come from UC's share of the annual fee.
When most of the DADS, ADS, DPADS and PADS reported to be over the 400K range in compensation, LAFO does get to weigh in on the fraction directly paid under the contract.
August 11, 2017 at 11:22 AM
Truer words were never written on this blog!
Ditto
August 11, 2017 at 11:22 AM
Truer words were never written on this blog!
August 12, 2017 at 10:34 AM
You are the exact same poster, you are not fooling anyone.
Sorry you feel compelled to make up stories in order to attempt to deflect from the fact that the LANL leadership is almost fully populated by UC lifers that only marginally surpass the minimal required IQ to get a degree.
August 13, 2017 at 8:22 AM
Yep, that is more evidence that UC runs the show.
August 13, 2017 at 9:05 AM
Correct that Bruce Darling ran the UC search process to deliver McMillan as the new Director. Pattiz was too much of a rube to even notice that he was being played and all involved were enamored by Anastasio. Anastasio had been Director of both of the design labs and was viewed in an almost god-like manner for having led the LANS team in the contract bid. When Anastasio told Darling and Pattiz that McMillan was the best available replacement, they fell in line and pushed Bechtel to get on board with the decision.
Some of this came to light when Chu initially refused to accept McMillan as the choice. Since the DoE Secretary must approve of the lab Director's qualifications, this put UC in a pinch to defend their flawed process. You can check available information to confirm that several visits to Forrestal were required to get Chu to agree to accept McMillan.
The whole episode left a very bad taste with Chu, and he was outspoken in his disappointment at the way UC had run the process and the caliber of the proposed Director. As a consequence of the lingering ill will between DoE and UC over the McMillan selection, UC responded and Albright was the result of a LLNL search. That search delivered to DoE a Director that was judged qualified for the position.
Going on a bit deeper into the results, many UC lifers remained resentful of Albright, since he had come from outside their environment. He made tough decisions that had been postponed under UC, didn't last long and parted ways with UC.